Author: Doug McCaughan

Web developers should expect that companies will be asking if their work is section 508 compliant. That is, can people without sight, hearing or other challenges use the website? A blind UC Berkley student has sued Target for committing a civil rights violation because its website is inaccessible to those without sight. Oh, and programmers, I’d expect that the companies wanting to be compliant probably don’t want to pay any extra for it.

Advocates for the blind said the lawsuit is a shot across the bow for retailers, newspapers and others who have Web sites the blind cannot use. They chose Target because of its popularity and because of a large number of complaints by blind patrons.

“What I hope is that Target and other online merchants will realize how important it is to reach 1.3 million people in this nation and the growing baby-boomer population who will also be losing vision,” said plaintiff Bruce Sexton Jr., 24, a blind third-year student at UC Berkeley.

Of note, Section 508 is specific to government agencies and federally funded organizations. I’m pretty sure Target is not federally funded.

Sleep is the new sex!

“Sleep is something everyone needs and wants,” said Melanie Wells, senior editor of Forbes. “We have to have it, and we have trouble getting it these days. And increasingly people are paying a lot of money for relief.”

Criminals, take note. Be ugly.

FEBRUARY 8–A Florida sheriff’s deputy was fired this week for using his patrol car’s dashboard camera to film scantily clad women at public beaches. Jack Munsey, 36, lost his job with the Martin County Sheriff’s Office after internal affairs officers obtained two videotapes showing the cop’s cinematic efforts. As seen in the video stills below, Munsey, who spent 10 years on the force, used the camera’s zoom function for close-up views of, among other things, a woman using an outdoor shower in Jensen Beach. He even got shots when a breeze blew up the skirt of another gal. The videotape also includes images–all of which were shot late last year–of assorted bikinied bottoms and cleavage.